4 yo started wetting his pants on purpose to get attention

[maggiethemagpie]

He's been potty trained for a year, and dry in the day all that time with no accidents. Now he is deliberately wetting his pants once a day, he's admitted he is doing it to get attention and be like his baby sister who is still in nappies.

how do I get him to stop?

Why do you think it is deliberate?

Does he have a UTI? Or is he ill in any other way?

You can often persuade a 4 year old to agree with you, when that isn't the truth. (I once persuaded one of mine that their mouth pain was anxiety; it was an abscess [bad mum]).

Perhaps try the ignoring him/it technique, when he wets don't say a word, take him to get changed and be silent.

When he's got dry pants (do checks) then dance and cheer and praise him like he's amazing.

A reward chart? Or a small treat for a dry morning/ afternoon/evening?

Does he start school is September? Quite common at this age.

Our approach to consistent accidents at 4yo was (after ruling out medical options) Tell him that if he has an accident, to put his wet clothes in the bath/shower and get dressed himself, then let you know so you can finish clearing up.

We had the same problem when DS3 was born and DD2, then 56 months old, started having daytime accidents again - at least we assumed they were accidents in the sense of not being a reasoned conscious decision to wet because she wanted to be like the baby but more a feeling of which she was probably unaware of wanting similar attention. We made sure we gave it to her but NOT at times when she had been wet - which we treated in as matter of fact way as possible with as little emotional inter-action as possible. When I changed the baby I involved her as much as possible, spent quite a lot of time using her as "mummy's helper", fetching nappies, putting powder (under close supervision!), all the time emphasizing how helpless babies were and how much more she could do with us because she was a big girl. She seemed to get the message and it only lasted a couple of months. She is now nearly 8 and devoted to her little brother so it does not seem to have been lasting jealousy.